The Essential Status Quo Review

Release Date: Nov 16, 2001Label: SpectrumGenres: RockNumber Of Tracks: 54
The title of the colection lives up to it's name, as it is indeed The Essential Quo, an essential buy for any Quo fan, and, yes, it is definately worth the money it's priced at.

The Essential Status Quo
Reviewed by:
belavista man, on june 13, 2007 0 of 1 people found this review helpful

Sound: The thing I love about this colection is it's blend of pure '70s rock with the new-age sound of the 80's. No other band, I suppose, could pull it off. Putting "Rockin' All Over The World", a rock classic, on the same CD as "Magic" (probobly the most '80s Quo song ever) may seem like a bad idea to most people, but it's on here, and it works. There's some great riffs on here, as well. Those who have heard "Backwater" and "Roll Over Lay Down" will know what I mean. Those who havn't heard them, havn't lived. // 9

Lyrics: What impressed me, personally, about the vocals of this collection is the fact that they don't just supply the popular songs by Francis and Rick, but they show those less popular songs, sung by Alan Lancaster. I found some of the lyrics themselves a bit 'cheesy', like "I Love Rock N' Roll". Producing a song that named "I Love Rock N' Roll" after a cheesy rock classic (that is of the same name) has already been released, is asking for trouble. The rest of the lyrics on here are fine. a lot of them are written, either by Rossi and Young (which results in a good lyrical song), Lancaster and Lamb (which results in a bad lyrical song) or by Parfitt (which results in an even balance of rock and decent lyrics). // 8

Overall Impression: I think that the selection of songs on here is fantastic, as it uncovers Quo's hidden gems, along with their hits. Not many colections do that. I can only fins one downside to this, and that is that they havn't included enough of the tracks from In The Army Now and, maybe, Thirsty Work, as albums like them are the collectables for real Quo die-hards. There should be more from the '80s/'90s, that's my only critisism, along with the fact that I don't know why the song "Ain't Complaining" is on the collection twice. The title of the colection lives up to it's name, as it is indeed The Essential Quo, an essential buy for any Quo fan, and, yes, it is definately worth the money it's priced at. // 9